Imprisoned in Prose

Abstract

In this essay the author undertakes a close reading of chapter 38 of the book of Jeremiah, with three interrelated aims: first, to explore the various characters, ranging from the prophet and the king, to the insiders of the royal court, and an outsider, Ebed-Melech the Cushite; second, to probe the contribution of each scene to this critical sector of the prophet’s career, and draw attention to the narrative strategies that are artfully deployed in this chapter; third, to briefly reflect on the role of this episode in the book of Jeremiah, for it could be that chapter 38—on the threshold of exile—unfolds a kind of narrative experience that plunges the reader into the maelstrom of Jerusalem’s confusion and anxieties in the final hours leading up to the city’s demolition and the deportation of the citizenry.